8 in 10 Canadians (79%) Want Current and Historic Canadian Flags Flown at Vimy Ridge 90Th Anniversary Ceremony

8 IN 10 CANADIANS (79%) WANT CURRENT AND HISTORIC CANADIAN FLAGS FLOWN AT VIMY RIDGE 90TH ANNIVERSARY CEREMONY

AN ISPOS REID SURVEY

COMMISSIONED BY

Toronto, ON – A poll conducted by Ipsos Reid for the Dominion Institute shows that a full majority of Canadians (79%) support flying both the modern day Canadian Maple Leaf flag and previous “Red Ensign” Canadian flag at the Vimy Ridge 90th anniversary ceremony that will be taking place on April 9, 2007.

The most famous battle fought by Canadians in World War One was at a place called Vimy Ridge in France where a very large monument owned and operated by the Canadian federal government now exists.

Canadian government protocol allows no other flag than the Maple Leaf to fly on federal monuments. Various groups have called on the Conservative government to override the protocol and allow both the current Maple Leaf and historic Red Ensign – the flag Canadian troops fought under in World War One – fly together at the ceremony.

In 1917 the Canadian Red Ensign flag was a red flag with the British Union Jack in the top left corner and the coats of arms of the four original provinces. In 1964 Canada’s flag was changed to today’s Maple Leaf flag.

The Atlantic provinces (89%) are significantly more likely to support flying both flags at Vimy Ridge than most of the other provinces. Those from BC (81%) also show strong support for flying both flags, while Alberta (76%) and Quebec (76%) show slightly less.

REGION Total BC AB SK/MB Ontario Quebec Atlantic

Support 79% 81% 76% 79% 78% 76% 89% Oppose 18% 17% 19% 13% 19% 20% 9% Don’t know 3% 2% 5% 7% 3% 4% 2%

Age Gender Total 18-34 35-54 55+ Male Female

Support 79% 82% 79% 77% 76% 81% Oppose 18% 15% 18% 20% 21% 14% Don’t know 3% 3% 3% 3% 2% 4%

Question: Do you support or oppose the two flags flying together for this occasion? Groups who also say they support flying the flags together include:

• Young Canadians 18-34 are more likely to support than older Canadians 55+ (82% versus 77%)

• Females (81%) are more likely to support flying both flags than males (76%)

• Rural Canadians (82%) are more likely than Urban Canadians (78%)

These are the findings of an Ipsos Reid survey fielded from March 20th to 22nd, 2007. For the survey, a representative randomly selected sample of 1,000 adult Canadians were interviewed via an on-line survey. With a sample of this size, the aggregate results are considered accurate to within ±3.1 © Ipsos - 2 -

percentage points, 19 times out of 20, of what they would have been had the entire adult Canadian population been polled. The margin of error will be larger within each sub-grouping of the survey population. These data were weighted to ensure the sample's regional and age/sex composition reflects that of the actual Canadian population according to Census data.

-30- For more information on this news release, please contact:

Rudyard Griffiths John Wright Executive Director Senior Vice President Dominion Institute Ipsos Reid Public Affairs (416) 737 9626 (416) 324-2900

For full tabular results, please visit our website at www.ipsos.ca. News Releases are available at: http://www.ipsos-na.com/news/